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Lions Gab: Fans owe Mayhew apology

Anthony Kuehn is editor of the Detroit Lions blog, Lions Gab. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press or its writers. Get in touch with Anthony at lionsgab@gmail.com or on Twitter @lionsgab.

I want to start by saying it's early. Especially after last season, it is very early to say anything definitive about how this season will play out for the Lions. However, it is not too early to say that certain fans owe general manager Martin Mayhew a bit of an apology.

Many fans have been critical of Mayhew the past couple of seasons, culminating in calls for his job after last season's meltdown. All the while, I have maintained that the talent wasn't the issue with the Lions the past couple of seasons. Mayhew knew what type of team he assembled and knew where the previous coaching staff went wrong. No matter what your viewpoint is of Mayhew, there is one easily agreeable point. The Lions weren't winning like this under former coach Jim Schwartz.

This team has won ugly, has won with defense, and has won with offense, but the bottom line is they are winning. They are a below-average field-goal kicker away from the best record in the NFL seven weeks into the season. That's because of the vision Mayhew has been working toward.

I know detractors point at the 2011 NFL draft and the lack of successful second-round picks. Let's look at that draft: Nick Fairley, Titus Young, Mikel Leshoure, Doug Hogue and Johnny Culbreath. Fairley is finally unlocking his talent this season. Nobody really understood the depth of Young's issues; if they did, he never would have been listed as a draftable prospect or invited to the Senior Bowl. Leshoure suffered a career-altering injury that basically ended his career before it started. Hogue had a slightly below-average career for a fifth-rounder, and Culbreath met the same fate as most seventh-rounders. Five players and four misses. Terrible draft, right?

Let's look at a few drafts under some GMs who are commonly referred to as geniuses.

Team A 2012: Nick Perry, Jerel Worthy, Casey Hayward, Mike Daniels, Jeron McMillian, Terrell Manning, Andrew Datko and BJ Coleman. Three of those eight are still on a roster, and only one is making an impact for the Green Bay Packers. You think Mayhew missing on a string of second-rounders is rough? Here's a stretch of Packers' first-rounders, BJ Raji, Brian Bulaga, Derek Sherrod, Nick Perry and Datone Jones. A massive underachiever on IR, an adequate player with major injury issues, a bust due to injury, a bust due to performance and an unimpressive backup. That's Ted Thompson's handiwork for five years' worth of first picks.

Team B 2011: AJ Jenkins, LaMichael James, Joe Looney, Darius Fleming, Trent Robinson, Jason Slowey and Cam Johnson. Seven picks, one player left on the roster, and he's a backup. That's Trent Baalke, who is held in such high regard that the 49ers might let the most successful coach the past four years go because he doesn't get along with Baalke.

Team C: These are some of their second-round draft picks over a 10-year period. Eugene Wilson, Bethel Johnson, Marquise Hill, Chad Jackson, Terrence Wheatley, Ron Brace, Darius Butler, Patrick Chung, Jermaine Cunningham and Ras-I Dowling. That's Patriots Hall of Fame coach and GM Bill Belichick. He has had a couple of second-round picks who panned out in that period: Rob Gronkowski and Shane Vereen. But for the bulk of a decade, he couldn't land a successful second-round pick.

Even the best of the best have some bad drafts and some misses. Mayhew has done excellent work in the first round. He drafted impact players in Matthew Stafford, Ndamukong Suh, Fairley and Ziggy Ansah. He drafted two solid starters in Brandon Pettigrew and Riley Reiff, and his only miss was using the 31st pick on Jahvid Best, who would have gone in the top 10 if completely healthy. That was a risk worth taking, especially in an uncapped year where there were 300+ fewer free agents than in a normal year.

Mayhew has drafted better than most give him credit for, and he has been improving, which is a great sign. That being said, drafting is probably his weakest area when you look at how successful he has been in other areas.

Mayhew has done an excellent job with undrafted rookie free agents such as Joe Fauria, LaAdrian Waddle and Kellen Moore. He has found contributors like Joique Bell, Corey Hilliard, George Johnson, Ashlee Palmer, Jeremy Ross, Isa Abdul-Quddus and George Winn on the scrap heap.

Mayhew has masterfully manipulated other teams when it comes to trades. He landed three starters and the best backup quarterback in the NFL in one off-season for nothing higher than a fifth-round pick. Chris Houston, Corey Williams, Rob Sims and Shaun Hill were basically stolen from their respective teams. Mayhew also flipped a seventh-round tight end (Dan Gronkowski) for Alphonso Smith, who was a starting defensive back for three years. All those trades occurred during the uncapped year or lockout year when free agency was drastically affected.

Speaking of free agency, find a more productive GM in that arena. Some free agents were culture change and leadership related like Kyle Vanden Bosch, who had a huge impact on a young Suh, and Nate Burleson, who mentored Calvin Johnson. Reggie Bush, James Ihedigbo, Jason Jones, Rashean Mathis, CJ Mosley, Glover Quin, Daryl Tapp, Golden Tate and Stephen Tulloch all have been signed in recent years and are integral parts of the franchise. None has a back-breaking contract, either. How many years have other teams grabbed the headlines for great free-agent classes? Nobody received more impact at a reasonable cost than the Lions.

One of Mayhew's most criticized moves was the hiring of the "uninspiring retread" Jim Caldwell as coach, which has looked brilliant so far. Caldwell built a staff of open-minded, innovative, level-headed teachers who have taken the mistake-prone Lions that blew games and crafted them into something better. After seven games, the Lions have stepped up to another level in the face of adversity instead of crumbling. When they make a mistake, they find a way to move past it.

There has been much discussion of the culture and leadership change inside Allen Park. Most impressive is the behavior of the players under Caldwell. He finally got through to Fairley (again, still early) and sent a message to the entire team about accountability. There are stories about how his treatment of players has empowered them, and many more leaders have emerged in the locker room as a result.

Quin and Mathis have taken the secondary under their wings. Tapp has done the same for the defensive line. Levy has taken his game and his leadership to another level as well. Reggie Bush and Joique Bell are mentoring the running backs, and Tate has replaced Burleson as the leader of the receivers. Stafford always has led by example, but he is even improving as a vocal leader.

The Lions couldn't even look respectable last year without a healthy Johnson, yet here they are on a two-game win streak without him. They are doing it by riding the top defense in the NFL, one that has 10 of 11 starters from the unit that allegedly was so bad last season.

It is too early to say what these Lions will do this season. What we can say is look what they've done. They are winning close games, making plays to win instead of mistakes to lose. They keep their composure, and they play with a controlled fury. We haven't seen any of that in the recent past. I don't know if they can keep it up, but I feel far more confident that they can for the first time in more than a decade. There is one man to thank for that, the unsung hero, Martin Mayhew.